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Regional Innovation Clusters and Other Public/Private Partnerships
That Work
June 29, 2011
Kristina M. Johnson
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Outline
❐ NSF Engineering Research Centers (ERCs)
❐ Regional Innovation Clusters (RICs)
❐ DOE Xlerator SBIR Program
❐ Advanced Technology Program
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Linking Science and Technology
Linear, feedforward Vannevar
Bush
Use-inspired:
(Source: Adapted from Pasteur’s Quadrant by Donald Stokes)
Pasteur Turing
Bohr
Edison
Shannon Carnot
Curie
mor
e fu
ndam
enta
l
more applied
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NSF/ERC for Optoelectronic Computing Systems Ctr.
❐ Mission Orientation ❐ Systems Focus ❐Educating a New Kind of Student ❐Active Participation of Industry ❐Ten Year Funding Horizon
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“Staying Power” …It takes a decade
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ATP funding
company founded: credit card round
industrial partnership acquisi9on
ATP award
VC
movie premier
Company X
‘75 ‘80 ‘85 ‘90 ‘95 ‘00 ‘05 ‘10
materials discovery
physics discovery
device inven9on
key patent issued
angel round
university laboratory
Discovery to Commercialization: It takes “Staying Power”
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FY11: Supporting Science and Energy Innovation
Regional Innovation Hubs: $107 million
Energy Frontier Research Centers: $140 million
Advanced Research Projects Agency –
Energy: $300 million High risk, high payoff research
into potential energy game changers.
Multi-disciplinary team of scientists and engineers
focused on the major barriers to scaling energy systems
Small groups of researchers working at the forefront of
fundamental energy science.
Hubs in: • Fuels from Sunlight • Building Systems • Nuclear Simulation & Modeling • Batteries and Energy Storage
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Energy Regional Innovation Cluster
Buildings energy data book, 2007
Addressing energy efficiency in buildings: a national need
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e-RIC: Building Systems Hub
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Air-flow
Weather Thermal inertia
HVAC systems
On-site energy generation
Lighting Building materials
A Building OS
Behavior
Policy
Design
Economics
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• nuclear
• CCS
• renewables
• offsets
Small Business Innovation
Between 1993 and 2008, small businesses created 64% of all net new jobs, totaling 14.5 million new jobs—or > 2,600 jobs per day.
SBIR-nurtured firms consistently account for a 25% of all US R&D 100 Award winners. Small businesses create 13 more patents per employee than large firms.
Small businesses employ nearly 40% of the U.S. science and engineering workforce.
Small businesses create more than half of U.S. gross domestic product and export an average of $375 billion/yr.
Innovation
Talent
Jobs
Wealth
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Phase III Xlerator Program
GOAL: To accelerate near-term career-creation.
Phase III Funding Opportunity:
• Total Funding $57M from ARRA & FY 2010 • DOE made 33 awards • Award sizes range from $250k to $3M
• Mid-year Report: • First Qtr. 13% job growth (careers) • Estimated 5 yr. impact is 2.4X increase in jobs and
over $1bn in cumulative revenue • Net estimated growth of 1400 careers
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Survey research and analysis performed by Alec Orban and Terry Bibbens of SBTC through surveying all 33 companies in DOE Xlerator Program, Dec 2010 to Jan 2011. Data shown is from 25 respondents.
SBTC is the leading small business high-tech trade association and is a Council of NSBA.
DOE Phase III Xlerator Program
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Tech Commercialization Fund
TCF created in FY08 to help move lab technologies to market More than 60 technologies sponsored at 8 labs
DOE Funding Helps Start-Up Companies through TCF
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TCF Success Story: Ampulse
TCF Funding - $675,000 Technology Area – Crystalline Silicon Thin Film PV Status – Pilot-scale manufacturing line ordered Virtual Company model – technical development
occurs at NREL through CRADA Series A funding secured – additional clean energy jobs created NREL/ORNL joint “bundled” technology – OS and EERE funded
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EERE Technology Commercialization Portal
♦ Web-based system providing public access to summaries of DOE lab technologies in EERE mission space.
♦ Designed for technology seekers (companies, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists) to identify and bundle energy technology.
♦ Contains more than 110 marketing summaries and almost 15,000 published US Patents/patents pending.
http://techportal.eere.energy.gov 15
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Concluding Comments Different Technologies - different incubation periods
Focus on problems to solve, markets to address
Regional Innovation ecosystem development a focus of Startup America
Be proactive with state and federal representatives - connect the dots.
Sustaining Small Businesses
Durations of various innovation financing mechanisms.
Combinations of financing types possibly applicable to companies pursuing fundamental innovation.
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“Use-Inspired” R&D: Fuels From Sunlight
Hubs EFRCs ARPA-e
water + CO2 + sunlight → fuel + oxygen
e- +
+
Bacteria A
Bacteria B